Went to a public session at my home club's rink. What a difference from what my city lets you do on the ice! Windsor doesn't let you go backwards, never mind footwork. I love Tecumseh for what they allow you to do and how they handle things.

I was allowed to do anything I wanted; spins, jumps, footwork, spirals and the works. I made sure to ask the skate patrol first before I did anything. He told me as long as I watched out for everyone else, I could do anything I wanted. So I did.

Waltz jump by itself
toe loop by itself
salchow by itself
footwork by itself
waltz/toe/toe combo preceeded by 4 forward crossstrokes and jumped from them
back right edge with left leg extended high infront
spirals
3 forward spins from RBO lunge centred

Poopy:
backspin won't go passed 1 and 1/2 revs before I fall out of them.
forward spins without the RBO lunge preceeding them were not centered.
flip jump was still under rotated and I am not getting my left foot to wrap in front of my right foot when I pick in with my right foot and my legs are wide open in the air. Still forgetting to use my arms when doing the flip.

Wow, Brig, you sure got a lot of stuff socked into a public session. You go, girl!

POOPY - Well, gosh, I know it's Monday morning and all, and I know I played 2-1/2 hours of racquetball this weekend and rowed for 20 minutes (the first time since the broken wrist) and did my strength training and long stretch session ... BUT how come I seemed to be flagging a bit in the leg/energy area? ***stamps foot and pouts*** I keep thinking I'm a young teen or something, and was I ever surprised when my legs got kind of cranky and told me that I needed to scale things down a bit.

PEPPY - OK, so if the legs are a little tired and sore, guess we'll just mix things up a lot. So I only did a run-through of two of each single jump and axels, laid off the 2sal entries for the day, worked extra long on the back spins (good), camel/sit/back sit (not as good), camels (good), and attitude (surprisingly better). Then it was time for the 3 different footwork pieces, two of which were good but not great (the knees didn't quite want to cooperate), and of course the dreaded Tigger footwork (awkward, but she can fix it at my lesson tomorrow). Then I worked on front and back spirals, convincing my legs that I was giving them a "massage" by stretching them like that.

I skated the whole 90 minutes, with a max of only 2 other people on the ice at any time, so I wasn't disappointed, just slightly disheartened that it was not the awesome showing from Friday.

But Mama said there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this our Mamas said.

Pooped: ME!!! Slept through the alarm, hubby on the road last night, didn't wake up until Charlie Brown decided to walk on me and wake me up (thank heaven he did) late to the rink, crabby, cranky, grr...

Peppy: Worked on the ISI FS 2 Dance/Step sequence and seem to be getting the edges better. The FS 3? Whoa, with an outside mohawk, which is a bear, but I made a little progress.

Fun note: My coach came to see me at a bellydance event on Sunday celebrating the woman who designed and made all of our costumes. Now my coach is threatening to put me on the ice in the outfit!! (Right--the belt alone weighs a couple of pounds from the beadwork--I'd never be able to jump!!!)

Yaz, who sez you have to jump? It would be a show stopper at the skating exhibition we have at Lake Placid during Adult Skate Week in August.

Peppy: At least I can skate after my mid ice collision last week.

Poopy: Coach decided that the back crossovers really need a makeover. She wants more edge and less scratching!! She did give some helpful suggestions which seem to improve the quality. It is now a matter of practice and try to "undo" my old bad habits.
Had to cut the practice afterwards in half since I was getting sore again.

I didn't get to skate as much this weekend as I usually do and I felt really out of it for my lesson today. I got to warm up for an hour and a half before my lesson and I still felt like crud. Ever have one of those days? Rotten spins, falling on every jump (except my loop, go figure) and my blades were grinding thru the ice/making too much noise. I hate to blame the ice but it felt like it was just too cold. Grrrr. Plus, I wasn't getting anying my coach was trying to help me with. I thought I understood it in my head, would go jump and was doing everything wrong still. It's hard for her to help me sometimes because I'm a clockwise turner/jumper and she isn't and everything has to be reversed but sometimes I don't get what she's telling me. I'm a little slow! Anyway, I felt like maybe I should stick to my day job. :P Pooooooooooooopeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I have rotation. I even land, but not on one foot. So frustrating!
and what might this be? My loop and my flip jumps. So close. I'm even getting 6 inches off of the ice on these two jumps. But my coach and I are so frustrated because I have a lazy left free leg. I'm wondering if I have this lazy left leg because of the recent flare up in my lower right ab in the area where I had my ovarian cyst removed last year (Oct. 4th, 2002). I only tried to do the loop jump a hand full of times before competing last year at April 2003 SC COS Adult Spring Skate where I won the silver in FS and bronze in Bronze Interpretive. So I didn't notice any mild pain at night in the area until working on the loop and flip with my new club. I'm wondering if the pain is from under developed muscles?

I went to the gym afterwards and did my weights at mostly 100% for the first set of 12 and then afterwards did two more sets at 50% to 60% to gain strength. I do all the weights except for the military press because that rips out my shoulders. Love to show off the fact that I can lift more on the abductor and adductor weight machines than the guys. I'm lifting 100 bls each on these. After more cardio, I went for a swim and then stretched out in the therapy pool. I still feel a bit of soreness but it's mostly gone.

Until I get my loop and flip to be landed on one foot, I won't get to start working on my lutz and axel. And with the way Adult Canadians are written up, the first category allowing upto a partial junior bronze test past, I need to get my lutzes and axels if I want to win.

Brigitte

OH, Coach is now asking for the Adult Canadians form and announcement. My interpretive is 2:56 now. I had to make it longer to get a longer footwork section.

Practice today after a week off (just couldn't get to the rink last week).

The rink I skate at has a adult public session from 11:45-1:15. It's great because there are never a lot of people. For the first half hour there were only 3! So I got a lot of stroking in all over the ice. Speaking of the ice the rink's ice has a hugh crack across it.

Poppy-nothing too poppy today.

Peppy-spins are getting more centered and I started working on my outside edge spread eagle. I never could do one so maybe now in my advanced age I'll be able to:D

PEPPY - As disappointing as parts of yesterday's practice were -- today, they were positively PEPPY! Two blissful hours of hardly anyone on the ice, a great lesson, and an awesome practice. Coach was surprised at my progress from last week. We started with spins, and once I got started, the back spin was mighty centered and nice and fast. The camel started a little shaky, and then it, too, succumbed. The camel/sit/back sit is lovely right up until the back sit. She says the transition is excellent, but then I'm turning my left foot in like I'm pigeon-toed. The last one was good and we left it there to burn into my brain for tomorrow and beyond. Then we ran through all single jumps. All were fine, though it took an extra lutz to relax. Then we did axels. The first was two-footed, but then I landed two. They weren't my best, but were definitely acceptable.

So we moved to the full program. I haven't actually done the full thing, so I thought I'd be a lot rustier. But I nailed the camel/sit/back sit (minus one rotation), and everything went pretty well. I fell on the axel (I'm still psyched out about going into it at such high speed), but it wasn't horrible. I also fell on an easy part of my footwork sequence (just a silly lack of focus). Everything else actually felt pretty good.

She worked with me to put connecting moves between my spiral, flip/loop, and the running 3s into the loop. They're totally cool. It's just a right back crossover left, step forward to the inside left and then do a counter? rocker? to a back inside left, then do the same thing with a left back crossover right, step forward inside right and turn to the back inside right. Honestly, it looks totally cool and I was psyched.

She was especially pleased with my Tigger footwork and I had a real breakthrough today where I actually LOOKED bouncy, pouncy and felt light and airy. I think it's going to look very cool as I continue to work on it.

I worked my legs into a pulp, so I'm glad that tomorrow is a skating "rest" day. I hope to hit the ice Thursday morning and do a full program run-through with music.

Singer: I'll put in my official disclaimer that this is not medical advice, but as a former OB/Gyn, I'd bet that the pain is more related to adhesions (scar tissue which can develop naturally from any abdominal surgery) rather than muscle weakness. If the pain keeps up along with the jump frustration, I'd talk to your OB/Gyn. Working on the muscles is still a good idea, but don't overdo it.

Figureskates: My coach taught me a neat trick that has helped my back crossovers. To start them, she has me stand up straight, "lift my chest" (yes, point the girls skyward!! ) and then bend my knees and start the crossover. It's done wonders for the crosses. Of course, I'll have to drop the posing start when I test... I realize I have "more" up there to lift than you, but give it a try. Sounds silly, but it works!

Yazmeen, that is a great suggestion because one of my problems is that I do not stand up as straight as I should. Bottom line is I really have crummy posture which I should work on. It also shows up when I am doing my waltz and salchow. I have a tendency to bend forward and look down which doesn't help the lift any.

One thing about figure skating, there is always something that needs improving!!

FS: Don't get frustrated with your posture. It's curable! It just takes time. I bet your salchow will be better if you can take off with a straight back and not looking down on the ice. If you lean forward going up, you'll lean forward coming down.

Poopy: Well, back spin, back spin and back spin. Can't do any. Story of my life. But I'm working on it. Since I don't quite get the back spin feeling, it's not helping with the flip. I suppose to feel like doing a back spin in the air. Oh well. However, the flip is coming along. I actually have a full rotation. The problem is I landed on 2 feet. But it's a progress. So that's good.

Peppy: We worked on jumps a lot last night. Coach really likes my landing position. Lots of compliments from her. I was totally embarassed. :o

We worked on different entrance into jumps and it's quite fun to work on.

Salchow: RBO 3 into inside mohawk and Salchow.

Loop: RFI spiral into inside spread eagle, RFI 3s and loop.

I really like that loop jump entrance. It looks totally cool. It adds so much more speed into the loop jump, it's awesome. My coach likes it too. But I told her that I can't do it in my FS3 program. Then she goes, yes, but I can do it in USFSA events. I can tell I may compete in USFSA in the future.

Side notes: 2005 US Nationals. Our rink is handing out form for adult volunteers for 2005 US Nationals. I'm not sure if I want to help out. I got the all event tickets. the selfish side of me wants to go watch the competition and don't have to worry about anything else. On the other hand, my coach said I could meet the skaters if I help out. I'm torned. I guess I'll check it out and see if I can just help out in certain date and time (or events). Wouldn't it be awesome to chat with all the skaters coming to Nationals!

Luen: I HIGHLY recommend working Nationals, its much fun. I worked in 1998, and I just didn't cover hours when there were events on that I wanted to see with my all event tix. One thing though: The strictest rule we were taught by the Vol. head was NO talking to the skaters unless they approached you first. Its a good rule, because the skaters really shouldn't be disturbed. We almost had one little "sweeper" dismissed because her mom kept taking her around and being pushy to get autographs.

Haven't skated in a week and a half, so I have nothing of substance to offer here, but I just wanted to say that I'm going to really try to volunteer at the 2005 Nats... it's not too far away from me, and I have friends to stay with, and everyone I've talked to says it's a great experience.

T minus 15 days until the Riverfront Park Ice Palace opens... 15 minute walk from my dorm room, 5 minute bus ride, public sessions from 11-5 and every evening and deals for students and cheap coaches... I cannot wait!